An Embedded Protoplanet around a Young Star at a Wide Separation

Direct images of protoplanets embedded in disks around infant stars provide the key to understanding the formation of gas giant planets like Jupiter. Using the Subaru Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope, we report evidence for an embedded jovian protoplanet around a young star orbiting at a wide projected separation, likely responsible for multiple planet-induced features in the disk. We show how the protoplanet lacks a counterpart in polarized intensity emission, has a spectrum dissimilar from scattered light, and is detected in H-alpha. With at least one clump-like protoplanet and multiple spiral arms, this system may also provide the evidence for a long-considered alternative to the canonical model for Jupiter’s formation: disk (gravitational) instability.